Broker was the key to a house with a garden
TURNING to an independent broker did not just help firsttime buyer Julie Barton get a good mortgage – it got her a bigger and better home.
‘Like many people, I know next to nothing on mortgages so I knew I needed help,’ says support worker Julie, 45.
She checked online reviews on VouchedFor – a website that helps people find an adviser – and signed up to a free consultation with a local firm, Acclaimed Mortgage Consultancy in Birmingham.
She says: ‘At the first meeting I said I was thinking of buying a small flat nearby.
‘But, after looking at my situation, my adviser worked out that I could borrow more than I thought and at a lower interest rate, so I could afford a house with a garden.’
Not only did Julie’s broker, Sandy Ameer-Beg, alert her to the high service charge on the flats she was looking at, but Julie says she also pushed through the purchase when problems arose in the chain.
‘Without her support I would not have known whether the delays were normal or if I had reason to be worried – and I certainly would not have known whom to call to sort it out,’ says Julie.
After talking through all her options Julie picked a fiveyear fix with Skipton Building Society, set at 3.99 per cent – a rate she says she would never have found on her own.
She moved into her twobedroom, semi-detached house in Moseley in August and is already thinking of making some changes, adding value in a way she could not have done in a flat.
‘Seeing an expert changed everything. I could relax knowing someone else was doing the leg work for me,’ she says. Using a broker cost £395, but Julie says: ‘Every penny I paid in fees was money well spent.’